1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to a non-noble metal based catalyst, a method of manufacturing the same, a fuel cell electrode including the non-noble metal based catalyst, and a fuel cell including the non-noble metal based catalyst.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, solid polymer electrolytic fuel cells use, as an electrode catalyst, metal microparticles that mainly include noble metals having excellent catalytic activity and high potential, such as platinum (Pt).
However, Pt is a rare metal and thus is expensive. Therefore, there is a need to replace Pt with other highly active electrode catalysts for fuel cells.
To reduce the amount of Pt used, an additive such as zirconium oxide can be additionally used (see EP 552133), or a transition metal oxynitride can be attached to the surface of a support by sputtering in order to produce a transition metal oxynitride electrode catalyst (see JP 2006-334542).
However, conventional non-noble based electrode catalysts have unsatisfactory levels of activity and thus fuel cells using non-noble based electrode catalysts have poor performance.